Franz Lenhart

(1898-1992)

Franz Lenhart was born in Bad Haring, Austria in January 1898. He studied art in Vienna and Florence, to where he moved in 1921. The South Tyrol (a mountainous territory south of Innsbruck) had been ceded by Austria to Italy as part of the settlement that followed the allied victory in WW I and Lenhart took a post as teacher of drawing at the Technical Institute in Merano. He obtained the Italian citizenship and is thus numbered amidst the Italian deco graphic artists, although his background and style set him apart. He was very active during the late 20s and 30s as a graphic artist designing art, prints and posters as well as travel brochures and labels for clients in the Alps of North Italy, particularly in and around Merano, Bolzano and Cortina d’Ampezzo.

In 1934, he took a job as graphical designer for navigation companies and was able to travel as far as Japan, while doing commissioned portraits, before returning to his home in the Dolomites. From about 1930 until 1955 Lenhart designed almost a hundred art, prints and posters of mountain themes, of which a number depict skiers in action and are particularly prized today. After 1955, he rarely took graphic jobs, centering in artistic painting which he practiced almost until his death in 1992, at the ripe old age of 94.

Lenhart’s art, prints and poster designs may be considered outstanding by some, but his graphic art (often, but not always, marked with his bold signature) is distinctive as well. Lenhart’s treatment of labels is too often centered in the hotel building itself and never attains the grace and communicative power of Futurism artists.